Submission Guidelines

Best Children's Books Publishing

Steve Barancik LLC (operating as Best Children’s Books) accepts submissions of picture book manuscripts from authors and author-illustrators.

We pay a modest advance against royalties, split between author and illustrator. (Author-illustrators receive double the royalty.)

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

We consider manuscripts only. We do not entertain queries.

We do not accept agented submissions. Only the actual author or author-illustrator may submit.

We only accept submission of illustrated manuscripts if the author and illustrator are the same person.

Author-illustrators: The only illustrations we will consider consist of black and white line art. Our goal is to minimize our customers’ ink consumption. Simple but interesting pictures with big spaces for little hands to color are what we seek.

In the event that we elect to publish your text-only manuscript, an illustrator will be assigned by us.

We purchase only the electronic rights to your work. You retain all other rights.

We reserve all legal remedies available to us if you submit work - text and/or illustration - that is plagiarized or in any way violates the copyright of another person or entity. Only submit work that is entirely your own.

Please know that, like any legitimate publisher, we reject the overwhelming majority of manuscripts submitted to us.

We may accept some manuscripts contingently, i.e. on the condition that you accept our edits.

We may also suggest changes to a manuscript and suggest that you resubmit.

The format of our books is standardized. Generally, we publish works that can be presented with 16 pages of limited text accompanied by 16 illustrations. An accepted manuscript will almost certainly have less than 1500 words of text and will be appropriate in terms of content and sophistication to children between the ages of 0 and 8.

If your manuscript is accepted, or accepted conditionally, you will hear from us within one week. (Also, your submission fee will be fully refunded.)

If your manuscript is rejected, within one week you’ll receive an email response from us. In it, you’ll receive a rating of your manuscript on numerous quality factors. Unlike with other publishers, you will not be left in the dark about why we rejected your manuscript.

We will NOT answer questions or provide additional feedback. Please don't ask.

Pay the submission fee and submit your manuscript by using the submission form on this site.